German Chancellor Friedrich Merz remained defiant on Sunday, vowing to press ahead with potentially painful reforms to Europe’s biggest economy, after suffering a bruising electoral setback in two state elections.
Exit polls by public broadcaster ARD indicated that Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, came in with just 5% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – the lowest result ever since World War II for the party in any state. Meanwhile, the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party made significant gains.
Merz acknowledged that the result was a “disaster” but said he would still move ahead with his government’s reform agenda. He argued that Germany’s economic and political problems made difficult and potentially unpopular reforms more urgent, not less so, and pledged to press ahead.
“What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience,” Merz said in a statement shortly after the exit polls were announced on public television. “I will demonstrate these qualities as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as chancellor of our country.”
In Berlin, the CDU was projected to come in second with 20%, behind Die Linke (The Left Party) at 24.5%, according to ARD’s exit poll.
“In our city, love and justice have triumphed over hatred,” said Die Linke’s lead candidate Elif Eralp, the daughter of Turkish migrants, celebrating her party’s triumph over AfD.
Merz’s authority was already damaged by the CDU’s stinging defeat to AfD in the Sept. 6 election in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. That result shocked many Germans who had believed their country had developed an immunity to nationalism and assertions of racial superiority after confronting the horrors of its Nazi past through education and laws to outlaw persecution.
On Sunday, AfD was projected to make big gains in both states. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it garnered 37% of the vote, and in Berlin it achieved 15.7%, according to ARD. But it was nowhere close to being able to form a regional government.
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AfD’s national co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, told ZDF television that “the chancellor’s statement today really was more than feeble — he announced that he’d carry on as before, instead of finally drawing the consequences and resigning.”
However, in an apparent reference to the far-right party, Merz said that his government’s reforms would be “the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism, which is penetrating ever deeper into our society as the fascination with authoritarianism grows.”
The CDU has run Germany’s government off and on for the vast majority of its post-World War II history.
Merz, 70, became Germany’s leader 16 months ago with promises to turn around an economy that has barely grown in years. But his government is grappling with a weak economy, and many voters who had hoped the former corporate executive would fix that have become disillusioned with delays in implementing financial and tax reforms.
While Germany is again seeing moderate growth, the labor market deteriorated last year. In August, more than 3 million people were unemployed, an increase of 36,000 from the previous year. Demand for labor remains weak, according to the Federal Employment Agency.
The strong showing of AfD in the Saxony-Anhalt election, where it has the best chance yet of forming the country’s first far-right regional government since World War II, has further weakened the chancellor’s standing on the national level as well.
In the past two weeks, there have been calls, even from within his own party, for him to be replaced as chancellor, although no top-level allies have called publicly for his departure, and many have warned against “personnel debates.”
Apparently anticipating a tough post-election period, Merz abandoned a planned trip to New York next week to attend the U.N. General Assembly. Despite the strong headwinds, he has repeatedly said that he’s determined to stay on and finish his term as chancellor.